Joshua Victor is my first and middle name. I was named after Joshua in the Old Testament, who was a Victor in his own right, leading the Children of Israel into the promised Land. But this Joshua was a foreshadowing of the New and Greater Joshua, who would be the Victor over sin, death, and the devil, and would lead the New Children of Israel into the Promised Land of Heaven. This is none other than Jesus Christ, who by His death and resurrection is the True Victor.

Monday, February 05, 2018

“For
whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that
through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have
hope” (Romans 15:4). Today the prophet Isaiah gives us a beautiful and
encouraging Scripture, written to give us hope. Isaiah lived 7 centuries before
Christ, but probably more than any other single prophet, he described Jesus in
beautiful detail, showing marvelously God’s inspiration of His Word. Today
Isaiah teaches us about God’s powerful and effective Word.

I’ve always been amazed and fascinated
by the landscape of Maui and the Hawaiian islands in general. In parts of Maui
or the Big Island, you can see “fresh lava flows” from as recent as a few days
to a few hundred years old. Sharp, hard, black, inhospitable lava can cover the
landscape for miles around, like we see near La Perouse Bay on Maui. But amazingly,
under the right conditions, you can see green plant life and even whole forests
burst out onto those rocky landscapes that seemed utterly unwelcome to life,
and where no soil is to be seen. What makes this possible? Water! As a Hawaiian
proverb says: “Ola i ka wai a ka ‘ōpua”—“There
is life in the water from the clouds.” Water allows rugged plants to take root,
and together they turn the lava into fertile soil.

Not only can you see an amazing contrast
from barren rock to new thriving growth, but also from the dry leeward side of
the island to the wet windward side, you can see the huge difference it makes
to have water or not. Where there is water, everything flourishes and grows
with a heavy tropical variety of green—where there is no water, or very little
water, its dusty, brown, dry, and dead, or the plants are sparse and stunted in
their growth. Water is life, and the absence of water is death, as we can see
all around us.

The prophet Isaiah uses that truth from
nature to speak about how God’s Word works. God’s Word is like the water that
comes down from heaven, rain or snow, and wherever that water falls to the
earth, it causes plants to grow and gives food to all living things. So it is
with God’s Word. Where God’s Word rains down, things grow and come to life! It
produces life in our barren and rocky hearts, where there could be no growth
and no green, without the watering of God’s Word. God’s Word is the necessary
condition to transform stony hearts into living soil, to turn the brown and dry
ground into rich, fertile soil, where God’s Word can do its work, and make us
to grow. Spiritually, where the Word of God is, there is life and growth, and
where it is absence, there is thirst and death. As life cannot exist without
water, neither can our spirit live without the Word of God.

So
shall my word be that goes out from my mouth, God says, it shall not return to me empty but it shall
accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I
sent it. God has a goal, a purpose, a plan for what He wants to accomplish,
and His Word is the effective means that accomplishes it. This is such an
important Bible verse because it tells us that God’s Word is a Living, powerful
Word. God’s Word is not like our human words, which so often echo, fall flat,
or never achieve the things we say. Human words can be empty, powerless, and
cheap, especially when we do not do the things we say, or are powerless to effect
the things we command. But not so with God’s Word! His Word is always going to
achieve the purpose for which God sent it. God’s Word doesn’t return to Him
empty. His Word is not a gamble, but a sure thing. He does as He says. His Word
is powerful to do the things that He promises and commands. So we “do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp
shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your
hearts” (2 Peter 1:19). God’s Word is that lamp, and the Morning Star is
Jesus. His Word lightens our darkness.

So what are God’s plans or purposes for
His Word? Just a few verses earlier, in the reading, Isaiah calls: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call
upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous
man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that He may have compassion on
him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7). God’s
plan or purpose is that we poor sinners would hear His Word and turn back to
Him. That the dry and thirsty ground would drink water and receive life and
growth. God’s Word has real power and real effects (Preus, 173). God surveys
the dry, lifeless soil, or the hard stony ground of human hearts, and desires
for there to be life. He wants green, growing plants to cover that, and for the
watering of His Word to make rich, fertile soil.

Seek
the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near—now
is the right time to call on God—not later. When God’s Living Word reaches our
ears, it’s time to listen, time to respond! His voice will not call forever,
the rain of His Word will not stay forever, but like passing rainstorms, it may
move on to another place. Martin Luther famously predicted this of his own
German people, 500 years ago. He said if they wouldn’t listen to it, and
despised God’s Word, it would move on like a rain shower to somewhere else, and
that new life would flourish where people received God’s Word. And that’s what
happened—many Germans did not hold onto the Word, and they lost it—but meanwhile
God’s Word has multiplied, took root, spread new life and growth in many other
places. And all through history this is also true. God’s Word is powerful to
turn the wicked from their sinful way, to break the power of hatred,
selfishness, and evil, so that we are turned to the righteous path.

God’s Word is powerful to turn us from
unrighteous thoughts—all the unclean and hurtful things fill our heads—and to
return us to the Lord. God has compassion on sinners, and He will abundantly pardon. Savor those
incredible Gospel words: God will abundantly
pardon. My life is filled with many self-centered ideas and
ways—unrighteous thoughts, and I need His Word to wash over me, to refresh me,
to cleanse my thoughts and my heart, and to rejuvenate me with new life and
abundant forgiveness. Forgiveness rich and deep enough to cleanse away all my sins,
and to make me walk with Him in newness of life. And this forgiving Word is
Christ Jesus, crucified on the cross for us. His rich and abundant life poured
out completely to quench all the evil flames of our sin, and to wash the filth
and stain away, to refresh and make us new. Clean, pure, washed over by His
crystal pure waters.

We know that God sends His Word to us
with a purpose. A Law purpose—to humble us for the guilt of our sins and to
turn us to Him—and a Gospel purpose—that turning to Him we would be saved and
restored. God knows how and where we each need to grow, both individually and
as a congregation, a community. So let us pray to God that His Word would rain
down from heaven and cause us to grow in all the ways that we need it—to grow
in depth of faith, in patience, in rootedness (being established on Him and His
Word), to grow in fruitfulness, and Lord-willing, to grow in numbers of
disciples.

Today in the parable of the Sower, Jesus
teaches about the Word of God as the seed, that sometimes lands on ready soil,
sometimes falls on the hard path, sometimes thorny ground, sometimes stony
ground. Plants on stony soil don’t have much root. They can’t get deeply
established to have enough water to drink, and so they wither and die in the
heat. God’s Word is both a deep rooted foundation for us, if we build solidly
on it; and also the deep refreshing drink of water that satisfies our thirsty
souls (or could we say: ‘soils’?!). Plants in thorny soil, Jesus explains, get
choked out by the cares, riches, and pleasures of this world, and they never
grow to maturity to bear fruit. Our lives can be complicated with worries,
material things, and all kinds of attractions—and these can choke out the Word
of God. If we aren’t receiving that Word of God, we “die on the vine”—never
growing to maturity or bearing the fruit that God intended for us.

In Isaiah today, v. 13, it describes
what happens when God’s Word has been watering: “instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier
shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting
sign that shall not be cut off.” When God’s Word comes, it reverses the
curse. Remember the curse of thorns and thistles that God put on Adam? After he
sinned, farming and growing would become a tiresome and difficult challenge.
But God’s Word reversed that curse, changing cursed and thorny plants to
pleasant growth. Not in our backyard gardens, but in the spiritual garden of
our hearts—where God’s Word does its work. Is our heart wrapped with thorns and
cares—preoccupied with the troubles of life and pinched and poked by so many
things that we don’t have life and room to breathe? Again, only God’s Word is
powerful to blaze away the dead brush and thorns, and to give us new life and
freedom. All through the book of Isaiah, thorns are a picture of the judgment
of God against those who reject His Word and practice injustice. But here, for
those who receive His Word, that curse is reversed and creation returns to the
fruitfulness and blessing God intends.

In Jesus’ parable of the sower, and
God’s Word as the seed, there are two more possible outcomes, beside the stony
and thorny soil. One is that the devil snatches away the so it never really
even gets into people’s hearts—the devil robs them of really listening and the
Word taking root. This happens easily enough today with the countless
distractions in life from hearing God’s Word. But the last and best outcome is
when the seed lands on ready soil, grows, and bears much fruit. This is the
purpose and outcome for which God sends out His powerful Word. The Word of
Jesus, whether pictured as the water that gives life to the dry desert, and
causes our hearts and spirit to flourish, or pictured as the seed that grows
vigorously in the soil and bears much fruit—that word of Jesus is powerful and
effective to work our salvation. God wrote this message of salvation into
existence. His Word is not just knowledge to tickle your ears, but it is
life-giving, and life-changing, rejuvenating. God’s Word is not returning
empty—not today, not yesterday, or tomorrow. It endures forever, making an
everlasting name for the Lord—For He is mighty, a merciful, and compassionate
God. All hail the power of Jesus’ Name, Amen!

Sermon Talking Points

Read sermons at: http://thejoshuavictortheory.blogspot.com

Listen at: http://thejoshuavictortheory.podbean.com

1.Read Isaiah 55:10-13. What is Isaiah comparing
the rain and snow to? What happens on the earth when the rain falls? How do we
see these effects on Maui?

2.Where does God’s Word “rain down” and have its
effect? Where does God’s Word grow? See Luke 8:4-15.

3.Read Ezekiel 36:26. What are our hearts like
before God’s Word comes in and does it’s work? What are our hearts like after
God’s Word works?

4.What are God’s plans and purposes for His Word
(i.e., what does He want His Word to do?). Read Isaiah 55:11, and also vs. 6-7.

5.Why is it well worth us paying attention to
God’s Word? 2 Peter 1:19.

6.Why does God want life and growth in the
hearts of us people? How does He produce that life and growth?

7.Isaiah 55:6 says “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near”.
Now is the time of salvation, God’s
Word also tells us. 2 Corinthians 6:2. Why is there this urgency about calling on God?

8.How generous is God’s forgiveness and pardon?
Isaiah 55:7. What does this mean for all of our sins? Why is God so generous?
Titus 3:5-6

9.Consider your own life. Where are the areas
that you need to grow? What “water” do you need to experience that growth? Does
it cost you anything? Isaiah 55:1. Where can you get it?